The present invention relates generally to the field of data transfer between communication devices, and more particularly to direct data transfer between communication devices in a decentralized environment.
A communications device is any hardware or equipment designed to transfer information, or data (e.g., an analog or digital signal), from one place to another over a wired or wireless connection. A mobile phone, also referred to as a cellular phone, or smartphone, is one example of a communications device. Other examples include personal digital assistants (PDAs), camera phones, portable computers, wearable computers, laptops, and tablet computers.
A smartphone is a communications device that allows a user to make and receive telephone calls over a radio link while moving around a wide geographic area by connecting to a cellular network, allowing access to the public telephone network. In addition to communicating over public telephone networks and Wi-Fi networks, smartphones, as well as other computing devices, have the ability to communicate over networks known as ad-hoc networks.
A wireless ad-hoc network (WANET), is a network by which wireless devices in close proximity to each other can communicate with each other in a decentralized way. An ad-hoc network does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points in managed wireless networks. Instead, each node participates in routing by forwarding data for other nodes. As such, the determination of which nodes forward data is made dynamically on the basis of network connectivity.